Paul Brazelton describes some of the apparatus required to operate the hot-water heating system in his home. / Jim Gehrz/MCT

By Emma Nelson

Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Desirée and Paul Brazelton keep their house warm without a furnace, using efficient windows and doors and lots of insulation. / Jim Gehrz/Minneapolis Star Tribune/MCT

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Paul and Desirée Brazelton’s Minneapolis house was supposed to be the start of something.

The 1935 Tudor was totally retrofitted in 2011 to meet the standards of an extremely efficient German building system that keeps a house warm without a furnace. The Passivhaus system maintains heat with efficient windows and doors and lots of insulation; the Brazeltons added the hot-water heater.

Their house, the first such retrofit of an existing structure in North America, was intended to inspire other middle-income people to build their own Passivhauses. It has inspired others, but their would-be followers are finding the financing harder than keeping a house warm in a Minnesota winter.

“When we first started it, there was very little information about people doing this other than, like, ‘Crazy millionaire builds super-awesome house,’ ” Paul Brazelton said.

The Brazeltons’ retrofit was a community event — and they wanted it that way. They blogged about the project and gave public tours once the house started taking shape. As word spread, more than a dozen companies signed on as sponsors, trading supplies and services for publicity.

After a year and a half in the house, they’ve seen their energy costs drop about 85%. There’s still a lot of interest from those who dream of an energy-efficient house of their own.

But in the U.S., it can be difficult to finance such projects, which cost a lot upfront but save money later. For families following in the Brazeltons’ footsteps, there isn’t the benefit of widespread sponsorship.

Tim Eian, the architect behind the Brazeltons’ retrofit, said houses built to the Passivhaus standard are commonplace in his native Germany and in much of Europe.

“In Germany, you see a lot of high-performance buildings, not just for rich people, but for everybody,” he said.

But it’s a different story for American homeowners trying to build to this standard, Eian said.

For those who rely on traditional funding mechanisms, he said, it’s “virtually impossible to do these projects right now.”

Appraisals are difficult because there’s not enough market data to show what the house’s energy efficiency would be worth.

Mortgage requirements for all houses have tightened since the recent financial meltdown. Part of what makes financing a Passivhaus even harder is the challenge of showing its benefits on paper, said Ryan Stegora, a professional builder who retrofits homes with the German model.

“It’s impossible to describe the immediate benefits to owning a Passivhaus,” he said. “Until you’ve spent some time in one, you really can’t grasp the difference in comfort.”

Stegora said he begins projects by preparing his clients for the cost.

The parts of the renovation for one of the homes he retrofitted to bring it to Passivhaus standards involved tearing down the original shell, reinsulating, rebuilding and adding new windows and doors at a cost of about $200,000.